diff --git a/requirements-tests.txt b/requirements-tests.txt
index c3abd4e80..a7908a384 100644
--- a/requirements-tests.txt
+++ b/requirements-tests.txt
@@ -1,7 +1,8 @@
 pytest==7.1.2
+pytest-mock
 coverage
 coveralls
 bokeh
 nbval
 pytest-cov
-pygments
\ No newline at end of file
+pygments
diff --git a/tests/test_tables.py b/tests/test_tables.py
index c36bd2dd8..de740e5db 100644
--- a/tests/test_tables.py
+++ b/tests/test_tables.py
@@ -572,6 +572,12 @@ def test_join(table, table2):
     z      | 1     | 10     | 10
     """)
 
+def test_set_format_with_no_format_column(mocker, table):
+    MockNumberFormatter = mocker.NonCallableMock(spec=NumberFormatter)
+    del MockNumberFormatter.format_column
+    with pytest.raises(Exception):
+        table.set_format('count', MockNumberFormatter)
+
 def test_join_html(table, table2):
     """Test that join doesn't crash with formatting."""
     t = table